Peter Mayer, former Chairman and CEO of Penguin Group and founder of The Overlook Press, died in Manhattan on Friday, May 11. He was 82. During Mayer’s 1978 – 1997 tenure, Penguin became a global player in trade publishing. He encouraged his imprints to publish a wide range of literary and commercial adult and children’s fiction and nonfiction titles, many of which he personally acquired. Among the renowned Penguin Group authors whose careers flowered under his leadership are Paul Auster, Saul Bellow, T.C. Boyle, J.M. Coetzee, Don DeLillo, Robertson Davies, Jan Karon, William Kennedy, Stephen King, Terry McMillan, Iris Murdoch, and Salman Rushdie – including the latter’s THE SATANIC VERSES. Mayer’s more than 50-year career in book publishing also included the 1971 creation of The Overlook Press. He presided over that independent entity “to publish books that for one reason or another have been ‘overlooked.’” To read the Peter Mayer obituary in The New York Times, click here. Continue reading →